


Branch and the Imaginary Library

by autodidactic_squirrel



Category: Trolls (2016), Trolls: The Beat Goes On (Cartoon)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:27:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24883807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autodidactic_squirrel/pseuds/autodidactic_squirrel
Summary: Quick, weird little story about who's in control.
Relationships: Branch/Queen Poppy (Trolls)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 11





	Branch and the Imaginary Library

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't get this out of my head, so I wrote it. Since its done, (or I’m calling it done, at least) I figured I'd share it.

“Phew, I’m so glad thats over.”  
  
“Oh come on Branch. Admit it. You had fun.”   
  
He smiles, shaking his head. “Pfft. Fine. I had fun. Happy?”  
  
“With you, always!” Poppy wrapped her arms around her boyfriend. “I can’t wait to see what our next adventure is!”  
  
Oh, boy. “Another one, Poppy… Can’t we take a break?”  
  
“ **Ahem.** ”   
  
Both trolls turned around to face an elderly and rather tired librarian.   
  
“Oh, hello.” Poppy, ever the more trusting, wanted to get things off to a good start with the newcomer.  
  
“Hi. I’m the librarian, and you see, it's after hours, so I’m really going to have to ask you to leave.”  
  
Branch frowned and shook his head. “Leave? We aren’t leaving, buster. This is our home.”  
  
“Branch, don’t be rude!”  
  
“ _Rude!_ Poppy, this guys just shows up and expects us to leave our homes and _I’m_ rude?”  
  
“Oh? I see. You’re story characters.”  
  
“Huh? No. I’m Branch. She’s Poppy and this is Troll village.” Branch spread his hands wide indicating around them.   
  
“Really? It looks like the library to me?”  
  
Branch and Poppy looked around. As they did everyplace they looked the world they knew wasn’t there. Instead shelves and shelves of books of all types stood around them. Poppy gasped and grabbed Branch’s hand without looking back for him, afraid that he might disappear too.   
  
“How did you do that!” Branch stepped toward the librarian. “Take us back! Right Now!”  
  
“Branch,” Poppy put a hand on his arm, “don’t antagonize the nice librarian. Whatever is going on we’ll figure it out.” The librarian had returned to his desk and started re-shelving returned books.   
  
“Excuse me?” Poppy kept firm hold on Branch’s hand. “Where exactly are we?”  
  
“Oh my, You really don’t know? Well, this is AO3 and I’m the librarian, created by the author for this particular oneshot fiction. I’d really like to get some rest soon though, so if you wouldn’t mind getting back to your story and going to sleep until the next time someone reads you, hmm.”  
  
“I told you, we are not characters. We’re real. And I don’t know who you are or how we got here but send us home, now, or… or… um… a little help here Poppy…” She puts her hand on her hip, still holding Branch with the other.   
  
“I’m sorry. I’m not the one who decided to start making threats, without, you know, a threat.”  
  
“Hey at least I’m trying to get us home. What are you doing? Nothing.”  
  
“Branch I -”  
  
“Poppy, Branch, I’m very sorry to interrupt, but this is a very short story so if you don’t mind… If you aren’t character’s like you claim, then simply step away from the computer, put down your phone or tablet and get on with your lives. Regardless, once no one is left reading we’ll all cease to exist, don’t blame me. I don’t make the rules. We only exist in the story after all, and the story is only alive at two points. First, while it's being written by the author. Second when the story is being read. So, you see, since the story is already written, we have about 1,410 words left before its over, one way or another, understand.”  
  
“But we _are_ real!” Branch insisted and squeezing Poppy’s hand, “We have memories and feelings.”  
  
“Yes,” Poppy nodded, stepping forward. “We have lives. And thoughts. At least I have thoughts.”  
  
“No. Me too.” He nodded to Poppy. He definitely had thoughts, whatever this Librarian might think. ”Maybe its a dream.” That could be.  
  
“Well then,” the librarian removed his glasses and started to clean them. “If that's the case, then I have quite a bit better imagination than I thought.”  
  
“What! No. Uh uh. If it’s a dream, then the one dreaming is me.” Branch puffed his chest up and pointed to himself. Poppy caught his eye and put her hand lightly on his arm.  
  
“But, Branch, what about me? I’m me, or at least I feel like me. If its a dream it could be mine?”  
  
“What? No, but… Poppy,” he deflated. If it was a dream, then only one of them existed. Poppy got a funny look on her face, reached out and pinched, hard, on Branch’s ear.   
  
“Ow! What the heck Poppy!” He rubbing his hurt ear.  
  
“So, not a dream then?” She smirked at him.  
  
Branch snorted, “No, I guess not.”  
  
“Right.” The librarian clapped his hands together. “So, back where we started.”  
  
Branch crossed his arms, which involved Poppy letting go of his hand. She switched to holding his arm instead, unwilling to risk Branch disappearing on her. He was deep in thought and unaware of Poppy’s growing unease with the situation.  
  
“So…” he began, “Let’s, for argument sake, say your right and this is a story. If we exist because the story’s being written or read, why don’t we write our own way out of it?”  
  
The librarian shook his head, “My little blue friend, that has been tried and tried. You won’t succeed. It’s terribly complicated creating a story that you yourself will believe enough to be in it and maintain control.”  
  
“Poppy,” he took her hand in his, “I think we should try. What’s the harm? He’s clearly crazy and it won’t change anything, right? We both know we’re real.”  
Poppy looked unconvinced. “What if he is right, Branch? He looks like he might know what he’s talking about.”  
  
“Please,” Branch’s expression softened. “I just want us both to go home.”  
  
Poppy sighed deeply. “Ok, I trust you.”  
  
He pulled his notebook from his hair and sat on the floor to write.   
  
“Making me crazy won’t work.” The librarian sat in front of a bright white glowing square.  
  
“What… How…?”  
  
“Neither will creating an imaginary door.”  
  
Branch sputtered. “Stop doing that! How are you reading my mind?”  
  
“Oh, I’m not. I’m just reading your story.”  
  
“Grrr…”  
  
“Keep calm, Branch.”  
  
He takes a deep breath and smiles up at Poppy. She smiles softly at him. He’s so lucky to have her…  
  
“I have an idea.”  
  
Branch returns his focus to the page in front of him. He needs a story for them to believe, that…  
  
“I don’t know if you should be writing in the third person, Branch.” Poppy interrupts him. “It seems like a bad idea.”  
  
“Thank you Poppy, but I’ve read a lot of books. This is how it’s done.” He loves her but sometimes she frustrates him to no end.  
  
“Aww… Branch, I love you too.” Poppy wraps her arms around Branch’s neck, hugging him from behind and continues reading over his shoulder.   
  
“This would be easier, actually, if you didn’t read while I wrote.”  
  
“Oh?” Poppy flirted and teased him “Performance anxiety, Branch?” Branch blushed furiously, and looked pointedly at the page before him.  
  
“Just be sure to keep the content within the rating, please.” Apparently librarian was reading as Branch wrote, too, his words somehow showing on the strange white box. “We don’t want the story removed, now do we?”  
  
Branch looked up at the librarian, concerned. “That can happen?”  
  
“It’s possible, yes.”   
  
“Branch,” Poppy sits down beside him, “If I don’t read and only you write, how can you make sure we both exist and I’m not in your imagination?”  
  
“Your lovely pink queen has a point, Branch.”  
  
Branch shook his head. He had a plan. He was the author after all. He looked at his queen, his love, she was as real as he was. He loved her and would do anything to keep her safe. He put the page aside and took her hands in his, his expression soft and open, hoping she could see how much he loved her. “You know I’d never let anything happen to you, Poppy. Not if I could stop it.” She nodded and he reaches up to caress her cheek. He had a plan for the story. He leaned forward guiding her closer to him, closing his eyes, he -   
  
“Rating…”  
  
“Really? That?”  
  
“Don’t tempt fate.”  
  
Branch snorted in frustration. How many times had he used that same argument on himself? A problematic realization tickled at the back of his mind. Branch swallowed hard, glancing back at Poppy, worry showing in his face. His beliefs could change the outcome of the story he had in mind, and all at once, he realized his error. He wasn’t in as much control as he thought. He reached for the paper and pen to try and fix it somehow.  
  
He looked up and Poppy and the librarian were gone.   
  
“No.” He cradled his face in his hands. “Poppy.” His fault. All his fault. He should have known better and let her write. She’s the optimist. He knew bad things could happen and plans could fall apart. He’d even written enough to know characters didn’t always do what you expected them too. He’d succeeded in part, but it was cold comfort. This was a story he could believe, one where he was prideful, overconfident, and it cost him everything. It cost him Poppy.   
  
Branch let his head drop to the desk. Poppy was gone and he couldn’t get her back. Worse, she never really existed. The imaginary girlfriend, lover, soul-mate of a lonely young man who wanted to be a hero. So he’d written her, for “Branch the troll” to love, so he, while he wrote, could feel that love. But it wasn’t real.   
  
He pushed back the chair and stood, leaving his backpack with all his writing notes on the floor beside the desk, and went to go find the librarian. On his way out the door, he passed a sign which read, “Imaginary Library” and beneath it “Librarian: Branch.”

Sorry this story ended so poorly for Branch the librarian. I tried to tell you at the beginning but this time, and let's be honest, lots of times, you don’t listen to me either. So, that was my tale of Branch the Librarian and the Imaginary Library. I hope you found it as entertaining and as believable as I did writing it. Seeing as that’s the point. Well, Branch. I look forward to your feedback. 

Love, Poppy

PS. =P Told you so!

“So, what do you think?”

Poppy looked expectantly at her boyfriend. How was he supposed to say he found the whole thing weird, disjointed and hard to follow… Also, it didn’t really portray him very fairly. He looked again at the story in his hands, point of view was all over the place and no consistent tenses, plus a slew of other problems... It was also a bit upsetting and left him with a dej vue feeling. He looked up at her, smiling away, and smiled back. It didn’t matter, as long as she was happy.

“Are you happy with it?”

  
“I am. I know, its a bit sad for me, but I like it because in real life things are good, and I’ve got you!” She pulled him into a hug and kissed him. 

“I’m glad,” he laughed. “It’s not bad, as a story, but you know… I like your scrapbooks better.”

“OMG! I just finished one, hang on, I’ll go grab it!” Poppy scampered off to find it and Branch put her strange work of fiction on the table and promptly forgot all about it. 

A breeze carried some pink glitter through the window, caught paper and they sailed out the open flap of her pod. 

Oh well, thought the author as the paper drifted within reach. Poppy was so close, too. It’s hard to keep a close eye on the word count.   
If she had, maybe things would have gone differently. 

The End. 


End file.
